Today I talk with Antonia Landy about what product operations really is: building repeatable systems for high-impact work in complex product environments, often making things harder short-term to improve them long-term. We unpack common misconceptions (product ops as “just process and templates”), where product ops sits today (more understood but often expected to be done without added headcount), and how product ops tasks always exist—someone is already doing them, intentionally or not.

(01:10) What Product Ops Means
(02:39) Common Misconceptions
(03:49) Product Ops Today
(05:27) Doing Ops Without Headcount
(08:16) Bottom Up Or Top Down
(11:30) Selling Ops Value To Leaders
(14:38) Research Ops Collaboration
(17:52) Advice For Researchers
(20:51) When To Hire Product Ops
(23:11) Fixing The Operating Model
(26:13) Maturity Models And Data Use
(28:47) From Small Fixes To Culture
(32:45) Three Tips And Wrap Up